First sail

 

I had my first sail in the Skerry yesterday. It was a light winds day, and supposed to be sunny, though it stayed grey and cold and overcast here the whole time. It was a nice social occasion, Daniel and Bjorn came to say hello and see the boat, a passing grandad with nice children in tow stopped to say hello and inspect the boat. Bjorn is a great photographer and captured some great images of the launch. If only my sail was set better!

Jamie and Gerard and Steve launched their boats, which was very good of them as collectively they had to travel quite a few miles to get here. And Gerard really stuck close and took lots of great photos and video of the boat in action.

I learned a lot. The attatchment to yard and boom all slip around, leading to crappy shape. I could pass the others downwind, but upwind no way, and tacking was difficult. The oar buttons are too small and the trailer is definitely got to go, I incurred a few gouges on the bottom when Jamie and I pulled the boat back on the trailer. I have a bit of a jobs list to work on.

On the plus side, Derry is very stable and remarkably comfortable, with masses of room for Oz and me and stuff. I was very tempted to launch again today, but I have some catching up to do.

Launch

 

This morning I fixed the name onto the stern of the Skerry, and after lunch walked Derry down to the beach in front of the yacht club. Anne did the honours, very eloquently, and the boat, the sea, and the assembled humans all got a good splosh of Tullamore Dew. 

Then Anne, Oz and I went for a row.

Derry feels reassuringly stable and rows very nicely. I was mighty pleased. 

Jess and Chris went for a spin next, and then another they liked it so much.

Andrew from the WBA was riding past. I got him to row so I could try out the stern seat, and very comfortable it is too. 

I had a quick lap by myself using the centre seat. The oars are set up for that station, and the boat really hoots along.

Tomorrow I am going to try the sail rig. 

Quality control

 

Restrictions have eased, and we can have two visitors now, so Jess and Chris came by and helped me carry the Skerry through the house. Maggie thd cat had to give the hull a very close inspection, and she is right, a bit of sanding and paint required there. I also dropped the boat on the concrete in the shed getting ready to move it, and there is a small crack in the gunnel near the stern. Dammit. Hopefully I can get some epoxy in there and noone will ever know.

Jess and Chris have the keys to their new house. A bit of fixing required, and then moving Tuesday Wednesday.  I felt a bit weary today, after a bit of running around, and got very little done on the boat. But I did put the sails up and attached a few fittings. And I had a think about how to tackle the remaining jobs to finish.  Slow progress but progress none the less. 

Stripe

 

I had most of a can of Toplac Oxford Blue left from Peregrina, so I painted the top strake of Derry the Skerry with a nice stripe. It added a couple of days to the painting project but I think it is worth it. Toplac is very nice paint. I will be very glad to get back on the water.

Blown away

 

We have had two days of storms and strong winds, which have had the old Altona residents drawing comparisons with the 1971 storms. A landing from the pier broke off and washed ashore. Our Wednesday Wonders sailing gang often moor off one of these for our coffee outings.  I hope the risk averse authorities do not use this as a pretext for shutting off the pier and/or the remaining landings.

Undercoat

 

I took the plunge today, put the sandpaper aside, and rolled undercoat on the Skerry's hull. I was planning to roll and tip, but all  the foam brushes were cactus. Hopefully Bunnings will be open again so I can resupply before the next coat.

I was pleased though, the surface seems fairly good, a few spots and holes to patch. I have to wait 30 hours plus at these wintry temperatures before I can sand and start the next coat. 

It's not a race

 Various apologists for the dismal performance of our nation's vaccine rollout have been resorting to the response:"It is not a race."   And, given how slow and erratic my progress is on the Skerry, I find myself reaching for the same justification.

But in my case at least, there is some wisdom in the approach. As I take my time, I am doing some things that I would certainly have skipped if I was racing for a deadline, and which would have been much more time consuming to add retrospectively. Like foot braces for rowing.

It took me most of the afternoon to  cut, shape, locate, drill, glue and screw them on, and I will need to flip boat, fill, let set, and sand the screw holes, another couple of days there. But my lovely 8 foot Canadian spruce oars turned up this week, and I felt I should have the boat ready for some serious rowing.

My other time consuming addition has been "D" rings attached with epoxied webbing to the forward section floor, to lash down a couple of inflatable beach rollers as bouyancy bags. I nearly epoxied them into the wrong end of the boat, one of the perils of the  double ender.

If (when) I do capsize this boat, I hope they lwill hold. The other addition you can see is a couple of  bits of wood each with a slot, that I can fit a hoop of wood into. This might be a support for a little front tarp, a shelter for Oz if the weather is damp, and might help with supporting a weather cover when Derry has to go live outside.

I stumbled over an impressive dinghy cruiser I had not heard of before: Giacomo de Stefano. His journey, by sail and oar, in a Ness yawl, from London to Istanbul, took 15 months, and nearly killed him.  Early in the movie of his jouney Giacomo observes: "There are no records to break or deadlines to meet, just curiosity and wonder of being in the world."  It was not a race.